👀 What to look for in Railway Fields this week (May half term)

It’s not so much what you can see this week but what you can smell as the heady almost intoxicating scent of elderflower fills the air, especially on the top path. Also appearing, the delicate pink and white dog roses are filling the hedgerows and the first bramble flowers are delighting the plentiful bees.

Baby birds are everywhere, although you may have to be quick to spot them. You may hear their anxious parents calling from trees as the fledglings make their perilous way into the world. Above our heads, the swifts are still screaming, enjoying the feast of insects above us. Down under logs, lesser stag beetles have appeared making all the work to build stag beetle loggeries worth while.

The last of the Spring butterflies may still be about, especially the Speckled Wood, but we are coming to the June gap soon when the life cycles of double brooded butterflies like Brimstones and Common Whites has come to an end and the single brooded species such as the Gatekeeper and the Meadow Bown have yet to appear. Fortunately there’s only a month to wait and the second emergence of whites, blues and others happens to join the Gatekeepers and the Meadow Browns in July when the Big Butterfly Count happens.

If it’s all getting a bit too hot where you are, the mature trees in Railway Fields provide cooling shade and there’s blossom and emerging fruit to please the eye (and the bees).

If you want to bring the kids to investigate the trees and do tree crafts, then join the Tree Detectives tomorrow (28th May) at 10.30am